THE Penans of Long Kevok in Baram, deep in Sarawak’s interior, will soon have their able bodied men trained as first responders to handle any major fires in their village and four other nearby ones.

The Penans, in which hundreds are still living a traditional nomadic lifestyle, will be trained as volunteer firefighters in a groundbreaking step.

Longhouse and village fires are a major concern in Sarawak’s interior, where external help is often slow due to bad roads and long distances.

Hence, the Penan elders of Long Kevok took the initiative to form their own Volunteer Firefighters’ Association, said Miri Fire and Rescue chief Law Poh Kiong.

Long Kevok itself is only accessible by road and is a four-hour drive from miri – two hours on sealed roads and another two hours on poor logging roads.

Law said training has yet to start for the volunteers as the association has not been approved yet.

“Training will start as soon as the Registrar of Societies (RoS) approval is received.

“We will train as many as possible,” he said.

Law said the training will take seven days and volunteers will be taught basic fire fighting techniques.

Apart from their settlement, they will also serve the nearby settlements of Long Leng, Long Urang, Long Liwok and Long Nan, which collectively have more than 1,500 people.

The young men of Long Kevok have shown that they have what it takes to be good firefighters, with proper training, in an incident in Long Seridan – another remote community in Baram – in May.

They were there for a football competition when a fire broke out in the settlement.

They, together with the Penans from Long Meraan, joined Long Seridan residents in fighting the blaze.

While the longhouse was completely razed, they managed to save several detached houses nearby and their prized church from destruction.

Fire and Rescue Department statistics showed longhouse fires since 2016 have been rising steadily.

There were 20 fires reported that year, destroying 417 pintu (units), 27 fires destroying 602 pintu in 2017 and another 24 recorded up to early December last year.

The losses last year were estimated at more than RM14 million.

Longhouse and village fires are always destructive due to design and the materials used in building the traditional longhouses, which are mostly made of timber as it is easily sourced from the forest.

Even though their design may have some similarity to terrace houses in urban areas, longhouses do not have the fire safety features found in terrace houses. – August 5, 2019.